The present application claims the benefits of Canadian Preliminary Patent Application No. 2,363,425 filed Nov. 20, 2001, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
This invention relates to a double knit fabric which may be used for a variety of clothing and other applications employing cloth or fabric. In particular, the present invention may be used to make sporting clothing, in particular uniforms, such as sweaters and stockings, for players engaged in sporting activities.
This invention is concerned with a type of double knit fabric of heavy construction embodying a considerable number of holes therethrough to allow control of the body heat with respect to perspiration of the player wearing same, when one is engaged in an active sport giving rise to many contacts with players or with equipment such as in, for example, hockey, football, soccer, softball, baseball, basketball, volleyball, rugby, broomball and ringuette.
All of these sports are team sports where there is a custom that the players of each team wear a distinctive uniform, which most of the time is made of a specific color arrangement and which may be, for example, a two color scheme. The invention relates to the construction of a knitted fabric for such sports.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a fabric made of a double knit structure with an arrangement of holes therethrough to provide comfort to the wearer engaged in an active sport or event.
A further object is to provide a fabric having a two color laminated effect, said laminated effect may be readily suitable for a great number of color arrangements of uniforms of variable dimensions, taking into account, the different sizes for players or wearers of different height or weight.
This double knit fabric which may be used for sports garments or uniforms, namely sweaters and stockings, may include a repeating pattern of predetermined courses containing wales of consecutive selected groups of tuck and welt stitches to form holes in and throughout the knitted fabric. The pattern may be repeated to provide a fabric with a considerable number of holes aligned in a predetermined geometrical arrangement and a two different colored effect.
The double knit fabric may be knitted, for example, on a mini-jacquard knitting machine which can make knit patterns on two adjacent sets of cylinder wales and intermediary dial wales for a certain number of feeds. A wale is defined as a column of loops in successive courses, which is the product of one needle, and a course is defined as a row of loops in successive wales, which is the product of one knitting revolution per yarn. The cylinder is the part of the double knit machine where the needles work in a vertical axis while the dial is the part of the double knit machine where the needles work in a vertical axis. The feed is a mechanism for repeatedly moving the yarn being stitched from one needle position to the next on a course.
In accordance with a particular aspect of the invention, there is provided for a fabric of double knit construction comprising:
a repeating pattern of at least three courses, a first cylinder wale and a second cylinder wale,
said first cylinder wale comprising
a tuck stitch in one of said three courses so as to form a hole,
a knit stitch in one of the two other remaining courses of said three courses, and
a welt stitch in the last remaining course of the said three courses,
said pattern being repeated to form the fabric with a plurality of said holes,
a minimum spacing between a pair of adjacent said holes formed by the tuck stitch including one cylinder wale in a horizontal direction within the same course as said tuck stitch, two courses in a vertical direction within said first cylinder wale and one cylinder wale and two courses diagonally, and
said second cylinder wale comprising two courses with welt stitches and a course with a knit stitch in the same at least three courses as said courses having the tuck stitch.
In accordance with a further aspect of the invention, there is provided for a fabric of double knit construction comprising:
a repeating pattern of at least three courses, a first cylinder wale and a second cylinder wale,
said first cylinder wale comprising a course pattern of a tuck stitch, a knit stitch and a welt stitch, and
said second cylinder wale comprising a course pattern of a welt stitch, a knit stitch and a welt stitch.
In accordance with yet a further aspect of the invention, there is provided for a fabric of double knit construction as described here above, wherein the fabric is knitted with yarns of a first color on said courses comprising at least one said tuck stitch and yarns of a second color for all other said courses so as to provide a two color effect.